By Kim Tae Won and Kim Young Shin

The wedding of the celebrity couple actor Song Joong-ki and actress Song Hye-kyo on Oct. 31 has been highlighted by their fans and media around the world.

Some 200 fans from mainland China, Japan and Southeast Asia, as well as the press, gathered in front of the Yeong Bin Gwan Hall at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul where the wedding ceremony was held. Rooms at the hotel with a view of the wedding hall were fully booked, too.

The marriage of the so-called “Song-Song couple,” who played the lead roles in KBS’s 2016 soap opera “Descendants of the Sun” (태양의 후예), was in the press all across East Asia.

Some media outlets from mainland China, where the accumulated number of viewers was around 2.57 billion people between Feb. 24 and April 14, 2016, tried to broadcast the private wedding with drones filming overhead.

Chinese website Sina Entertainment published an article on Nov. 1 titled “Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo’s wedding and their fairy tale photo.” The article said, “Now officially husband and wife, the couple looks great and the sweet atmosphere could be felt from the morning to the evening.”

On the website Weibo, searches for the hashtag “#Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo’s marriage” topped 2.14 billion on the wedding day, and was tagged 848,000 times. The video of actress Zhang Ziyi (장쯔이, 章子怡) dancing with the bride and the groom was viewed more than 2.53 million times.



The wedding was also in the news in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, where the 2016 TV show was quite popular.

Philippine’s Manila Bulletin had an article on Oct. 31 under the title “Song Joong-ki, Song Hye-kyo get married.” It noted the excited mood in the wedding hall, saying that, “The couple, who became romantically involved after starring in the 2016 hit drama series ‘Descendants of the Sun,’ held its wedding ceremony before 300 guests in the Silla Hotel’s Yeong Bin Gwan Hall, or Guesthouse, that was built like a traditional Korean house.”

Indonesia’s CNN Indonesia and Vietnam’s Vietnam Star also covered details of the wedding, such as Song Hye-kyo’s dress and their honeymoon destination.



twkim0717@korea.kr